As the daily two-minute leaks continue, our latest look at Grand Theft Auto VI takes place on a beach in the evening, as Jason cycles a bike along the sand between crowds of gloom-bathers, with some of the most extraordinary variation in NPCs I think gaming has ever seen.
It’s hard to fathom GTA 6 leaker Cyberleek’s choices to so frequently release unofficial footage in the most frustrating lighting possible. Like leak #6, this is an infuriatingly shadowy clip which at any other time of day could have far better shown off a truly incredible-looking game. However, that peeve aside, yet again this extremely unofficial advertising campaign for Rockstar’s November 19 game has revealed details we’ve never seen any other game come close to achieving. This time it’s the crowds, and at the time of writing you can see the clip here.
It’s fairly standard for games that feature larger crowds to rely on some repetition when it comes to NPCs. Sometimes it’s farcical, other times it’s well-disguised, but it’s never this. Heck, scouring the footage it’s hard to spot the same color swimming shorts or swimsuit twice, let alone the same person twice. As with yesterday’s nudist colony footage, the beach scene shows a remarkable array of body types and sizes, skin colors, and perhaps most incredibly (given the computation required) unique animations and actions. More than that, it’s not just popping in people as you approach, but rather this elaborate crowd is there to see in the long distance, their unique features visible in in this shitty-quality clip.
The barks are fantastic, too. This latest GTA continues the tradition of people wildly overreacting to your character just being in their vicinity, eliciting comments like, “Stop staring at my boobs, please. I know they’re fucking amazing, but…” Other lines I really enjoyed were, “I’m one of the hottest bitches out here,” and “Hashtag mermaid bitches today, am I right?!”
#beachlife
It’s not perfect. There’s an odd moment where a few guy’s backpacks spawn into existence as they walk past, and one guy slumps into his deckchair and has an odd little wobble as you cycle past, but the scale of what’s working here dwarfs it all. The glow of people’s phone screens as they take group pictures or selfies, the water lapping around the legs of groups stood in the low tide, and the long shadows cast by the low sun across people’s skin: It’s all mindblowing.
The irony that 2K and Rockstar are trying to get these leaks stopped with gross attempts at privacy-eroding subpoenas becomes ever larger with each of these astounding clips, even if they are stupidly hidden behind the egotistical messages from the leaker and their embarrassing attempts to hawk a plummeting crypto coin. The Netflix reveal due Thursday was meant to be the first time we saw the game properly running, but with 13 and counting clips, totaling around 26 minutes at this point, it’s fair to say the wind has been removed from that publicity stunt’s sails. But none of it will harm GTA 6 at all.
Anyone watching these clips and not being more interested to play the game is either a tiresome iconoclast or was never going to buy it in the first place. And the vast majority of the game’s customers are likely barely aware the leak is happening in the first place. Meanwhile, among those watching, I was pretty set on waiting for the game to come to PC in June 2027 (by my guess), but after seeing all this footage I’m feeling like it’s an inevitability I’ll pay the outrageous prices for a PS5 version. And I certainly won’t be alone.